Brainstorm A Title

[jadedinnocent]

I often find the right tile difficult as well. Here are some things I do...

Sit and brainstorm for a few minutes, ....

writing down every idea that comes into my head no matter how bad or silly....

walk away for a while and think about them in the back of your mind (for an hour, a day, a week, whatever)....

Come back and read them, write down any new ones you may have thought of....

You may find the one that fits then... or...

You still may need to walk away...again.

One thing is don't rush it. Hold the story back for a week if you need to (that also gives you time to look over the story again).
Patience is a virtue when it comes to much of writing.

That said you still sometimes have to eventually compromise with a title you find less than perfect, that's just the way it is at times.

Hope that may help some of you. Please add any other ideas and techniques you find to work.

[barbayat]

I always keep a temporary working title and then forget altogether about the naming problem.

So far I never had much luck trying to find a title, it usually finds me when I am writing on the story. I do the same thing with names for characters, I use the first that comes to mind and when I found the right name, I change it ;D

[.::Sith::Bitch::.]

It's hard when you have a good idea about a story and you start writing it but can't think of a title for it. Like Jaded Innocence said hold the story back for a bit, but like every excited writer, we get anxious to post our story (even though it's the prologue or first chapter LOL).

One way I've found that works is writing an Outline for your story. Yeah, it's a bitch sometimes but it helps. And an outline doesn't neccessarily have to be like:

and so on. It could be done with asteriks (*) or bullets. *nods* But in some cases, people who write out outlines, ideas, or scenes that they want to happen in their story, it usually gives them a GOOD thought of what the story is truly going to be about thus the invention of a title! *nods*

[Tempted Saint]

I think I am very partial to using the energy from the antagonist in my titles. *blinks* Hummm what does that tell me about me? *laughs* Anyway I have always found the "bad guys" so much more interesting so I often use them as the main character in my stories.

I like to link their mood or personality to the title. I guess I am not very original, but I like most of my titles I've had over the last year or so.

[Redheaded Beauty]

Another wonderful way that I've found to help in the naming department is to use a Thesaurus after writing down a few common words that represent either the feel of the story or characters. I also find that a working title usually is the best way to go when first starting a new story, usually the title will come to you as you write, maybe a catchy line that sums it all up or even just an emotional scene that gives the story so much and wham you have your title.